de Havilland Leopard Moth

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The de Havilland DH.85 Leopard Moth is a three-seat high-wing cabin monoplane designed and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in 1933.

Design and construction

It was a successor to the DH.80 Puss Moth and replaced it on the company's Stag Lane and later Hatfield production lines. It was similar in configuration to the earlier aircraft, but instead of a fuselage with tubular steel framework, a lighter all-plywood structure was used which allowed a substantial improvement in range, performance and capacity on the same type of engine. The pilot is seated centrally in front of two side-by-side passengers and the wings can be folded for hangarage.

Operational history

The prototype first flew on 27 May 1933 and in July won the King's Cup Race at an average speed of 139.5 mph (224.5 km/h), piloted by Geoffrey de Havilland. A total of 133 aircraft were built, including 71 for owners in the British Isles, and 10 for Australia, including one delivered to Nancy Bird Walton, the first female commercial air operator in Australia. Other examples were exported to France, Germany, India, South Africa and Switzerland. Production of the Leopard Moth ended in 1936.

44 Leopard Moths were impressed into military service in Britain and others in Australia during World War II, mostly as communications aircraft. Only a few managed to survive six years of hard usage although a small number were still airworthy seventy years after the last was completed. Six remained operational in the U.K. in 2009.

File:DH85.jpg
The first prototype Leopard Moth

Operators

File:Leopard Moth G-ACMN.jpg
Leopard Moth, showing complicated wing fold

Military operators

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  • Royal Air Force impressed into service a number of former civil aircraft, using them as communications and liaison aircraft during the Second World War.
  • Royal Navy impressed into service two former civil aircraft.[4]
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Airline operators

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Specifications (DH.85)

File:De Havilland DH.85 3-view NACA-AC-186.png
De Havilland DH.85 3-view drawing from NACA-AC-186

Data from De Havilland Aircraft since 1909 [6]

General characteristics

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See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era

References

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  1. ↑ Luc Baudoux, Les Avions de la Force Publique du Congo Script error: No such module "webarchive"., accessed October 2011
  2. ↑ Comas 2022, pp. 44–46
  3. ↑ Ketley, Barry, and Rolfe, Mark. Luftwaffe Fledglings 1935–1945: Luftwaffe Training Units and their Aircraft (Aldershot, GB: Hikoki Publications, 1996), p.11.
  4. ↑ Sturtivant and Burrow 1995, p 59
  5. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  6. ↑ Jackson 1987, p.340.

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Bibliography

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